Hydrogen is commonly produced from hydrocarbon fossil fuels. One of the significant problems of using hydrocarbon fossil fuels to generate hydrogen is that the process generates carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas. An alternative source for hydrogen production is water. Currently available methods of generating hydrogen from water include biological hydrogen production, electrolysis of water, chemical production, and thermochemical production.
Some researchers report that Group IV transitional metals react with water and generate hydrogen gas and a metal hydroxide. However, the conversion rates of these metals cannot produce large volumes of hydrogen gas for efficient and practical use. Furthermore, there are no efficient methods or apparatuses available to recycle the metal hydroxides and convert the hydroxide into hydrogen and oxygen.